The Banshee project came about because everybody is getting sick and tired of watching all these wonderful, classic muscle cars go up in price, and the owners suddenly begin thinking their Camaro or Mustang, or whatever, is now a priceless artifact and too valuable to drive. So, we’ve got a whole bunch of people sitting around in lawn chairs, polishing their “baby” with a diaper and talkin’ about the “good ol days”. What fun is that? To make matters worse, there are a lot of gearheads out there who would love to get their hands on a classic muscle car so they could really DRIVE and enjoy it but they just can’t afford it. So, I decided it was time to go back to the original mindset of Carroll Shelby and the Cobra, stuff a high horsepower V8 into a tiny, late model sports car and call it the "Banshee”, because it is going to be a screamin’ machine.
The first-generation Mazda Miata was a perfect choice for this kind of transformation because just like the AC Ace that Carroll Shelby used, it’s generally considered a girl, sissy car - and about the farthest thing from a macho, hot sportscar as you can get. But, if you dig past the Miata’s image, you find a pretty serious sports car platform under the skin... Perfect to tweak with! The best part is, by using a mid-90’s Mazda Miata, you not only have a car that is readily available…
-they built a billion of ‘em,
-they are not so old that they are all rusty, requiring a complete restoration to get ‘em back on the road, (you don’t have to build a whole car)
-they have a good top, (something the Cobra only dreamed of)
-they have power windows, power brakes, power steering, air conditioning… all the good stuff that you want in a modern daily driver
-they have the potential to be WICKEDLY FAST!!!
-and finally, they are CHEAP! I got mine with a bad engine off eBay for $2500 with no rust. It has all the above options and I’ve seen ‘em even cheaper than that - so you can’t beat the price.
Visit staceydavid.com/projects/banshee for more information!